A call to the IOC president to preserve the Olympics Spirit

Reproduced hereunder is the letter I sent to the IOC and the?Court of Arbitration for Sport.?

Ref:? CAS OG 24/17 Vinesh Phogat v. United World Wrestling & the International Olympic Committee (IOC)

In the matter referenced above, I seek to make a submission for your consideration as under.

It is my intention not as much to seek a legal remedy, but to urge you to uphold the spirit of Olympism and the original values[1] expressed in the Olympic Charter to “encourage effort”, “preserve human dignity” and “develop harmony”.

I make this submission inspired by the concept of Olympism which in the words of the International Olympic Commission, “seeks to create a way of life based on the joy found in effort, the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.”[2]

When making a determination on the matter, I urge you to take a course of action that will uphold the Olympic spirit.

1.?????? I do not contest the right of United World Wrestling to frame rules that obtain today and whose mechanical interpretation has led to the situation that is before you today. But I do submit that when rules create conditions that can lead to the violation of Olympism, the IOC has not just the right but an obligation to intervene.

2.?????? It is my submission that the rules of the competition as enunciated and administered by the United World Wrestling do not help preserve human dignity, a value enshrined in the Olympic Charter. I draw your attention to media reports[3] about the extreme efforts taken by the Indian athlete to conform, from having her hair cut, to starving herself of food and water and even having her blood drawn in order to reach the cut off weight. The rules as framed encourage an athlete to go to extremes bordering on a threat to their own lives.

3.????? I accept that it is important to have a mechanism in place to verify that athletes play by the rules and for that a weighing system must be in place. Apart from reasons of administrative convenience to help organisers, I see no reason why the UWW[4] should prescribe that the weigh in should happen in the morning. In Paris, I am told that the weigh in happened at 730 am even when a bout may have been scheduled for much later in the day. I see no reason why individual athletes cannot have the flexibility to weigh in at a time of their choice even if it is just before the start of a bout.

4.?????? According to the rules[5] of the UWW, the weigh-in window is for 30 minutes on day one and 15 min on day two. This too looks like a rule made to suit administrative convenience. Media reports suggest that if the Indian athlete had been given some more time, she would have been within the range. If by simply changing the way a rule is administered, the outcome changes, that alone is enough to question the rule ab initio.

5.?????? Until not long ago, the wrestling competition was just a day long. Then the field expanded and with that a two day competition became necessary. With 3 bouts on day one, post bout nourishment takes on additional importance. If the tournament had been spread over 3 days instead of 2, for example, nourishment would be dealt with in a manner which makes weight management easier. If by tinkering with scheduling, weight management for athletes becomes easier, surely the rule gets called into question.

6.?????? It is to the credit of the Indian athlete that she did not resort to gaming the system which would really have gone against the Olympic spirit. If she had allowed the permitted 400 ml of blood to be drawn from her body, her weight would have dropped by 400 g and she would have made the cut. If after this, she had forefeited her match for reasons of not feeling up to it, she would have received the silver medal. But she did not do so, her staff did not do so.

Before I close my arguments, let me draw your attention to one of the core principles of criminal justice. “Let the?punishment fit the crime,” said Cicero in?De Legibus?in 106 BCE. I submit that the Olympic movement would be sullied for now and forever if the Indian athlete who committed no crime is punished so, when at the same Olympics a team which violated the Olympic spirt and has a record of doing so more than once managed to escape with a mere rap on the knuckles. The whole world is aware of the incident when a country deployed drones to spy on the competition. All that happened to them was the a couple of people got suspended and the team go docked a few points. The Indian athlete who would have been allowed to participate if the rules had been administered a little differently now has to live with a blot on her career for as long as she lives. Is this far? I am not asking that the team that committed the crime of the worst order, of defiling all that the Olympic stands for or the country which did so should be handed down the equivalent of a death sentence. I am only saying that it smacks of an arbitrariness which I hope your conscience will stand in the way of.

I thank you for your attention. I trust that when you sit down to write your order, you will be fair and also be seen to be fair.

S Swaminathan

[1] https://olympics.com/ioc/olympic-values

[2] https://olympics.com/ioc/olympic-values

[3] https://www.hindustantimes.com/sports/olympics/vinesh-phogat-cut-hair-drew-out-blood-didnt-sleep-or-drink-water-to-reduce-excess-weight-but-nothing-worked-reports-101723021347177.html

[4] https://cdn.uww.org/2023-01/wrestling_rules.pdf

[5] https://cdn.uww.org/2023-01/wrestling_rules.pdf